Bombings Kill 12 People in Iraq

BAGHDAD - A series of bombings in and north of Baghdad on Saturday killed 12 people, including a soldier and his entire family, said Iraqi officials.

Police officials said that in the deadliest attack two blasts in Muqdadiyah targeted the home of a soldier, killing him, his wife, his two daughters and two sons as they were sleeping. The entire house was destroyed in the attack.

Muqdadiyah is about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad.

A car bomb in a commercial street in Baghdad's western district of Amariyah killed four people and wounded 12 others, said police.

Also, in western Baghdad, a bomb blast near an out-door market in the Sadiyah neighborhood killed two shoppers and wounded six.

Hospital officials confirmed the casualties for all attacks. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to reporters.

Nobody immediately claimed responsibility for Saturday's attacks. But multiple bombings against civilians and security forces are frequently the work of the al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq, which has been emboldened by successes of its fellow militants in the civil war next door in Syria and by widespread Sunni anger at the Shiite-led government.